


Love is a Bottomless Ocean

by babieken



Series: Every Vixx Ship x Disney [4]
Category: VIXX
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion, Alternative Universe - Disney, I think? i mean... it doesn't follow the little mermaid's plot thats for sure, M/M, Non-Traditional Mermaid AU, Vixx!Disney Crossover Series, also nothing nsfw, anyway...., god i hate little mermaid.... full offence she was the dumbest diseny princess, truly dont know how to tag this.... there's nothing triggering I think so we should be good
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:28:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24457462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babieken/pseuds/babieken
Summary: “You know what this means, right?” Sanghyuk asked, his face suddenly serious.“No, Sanghyuk. Please enlighten me.”“Well, your highness,” he paused. “I believe you saw a siren.”
Relationships: Jung Taekwoon | Leo/Lee Hongbin
Series: Every Vixx Ship x Disney [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1698703
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Love is a Bottomless Ocean

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY MERMAY... I GUESS *Clown emoji*

Sticky… everything felt sticky and moist. And that smell… that acrid smell of… seaweed? Hongbin’s face twisted. His stomach growled in hunger and his mouth was as dry as the Sahara. The sun was shining directly into his face; he had closed his eyes as soon as he tried to open them but a figure came into view, blocking the harsh sunlight. He opened one eye carefully, wanting to inspect the source of the shadow.

A boy? Gods he was so beautiful… How can a man be so pretty?

The boy giggled, airy and melodic. Now he was touching Hongbin’s face, his palm so wet and calloused, it felt strange against his skin. Hongbin didn’t mind since it was the beautiful boy touching him.

“Who… are... you?” he managed to ask, his throat burning in dryness.

“You can’t call for help like that,” the boy murmured to himself but Hongbin managed to hear his soft voice. 

The prince reached a weary hand up to touch the boy, just to make sure he was real, but no matter how far he reached he couldn’t catch him.

“Stop moving so much,” the beautiful boy scolded. Hongbin wanted to tell him that he was the prince and couldn’t be told what to do or not do, but he wasn’t able to form words. Maybe he didn’t mind it if it was the beautiful boy. “I hope this works…”

The boy looked down without saying anything for a few seconds before lifting his head up, eyes and mouth closed, and the strangest, most alluring sound the prince had heard his whole life came, seemingly from the beautiful boy. It was a hum, yet it echoed through the air loud and clear. Hongbin found himself hypnotized by the music the boy was singing; he only came back to himself when he heard a commotion from the other way, people coming his way in hurry. He looked around looking for the beautiful boy with the magical voice but there was no one. He was on the shore with the water almost touching his back. All that was in front of him was the infinite ocean.

..

“I spoke to everyone.” The younger sighed, dropping down on the seat beside the prince.

“And?” 

“Nothing. No one saw a ‘pretty boy’ on top of you,” he snickered.

“Hey!”

“They did though hear a music they couldn’t describe as anything they had heard before.” He held a finger up before Hongin could bite his head off.

“He made that song! With his… voice.” Hongbin threw his hands up in a I-told-you-so manner.

“You know what this means, right?” Sanghyuk asked, his face suddenly serious. Hongbin knew his assistant and best friend too well to know nothing good ever came out of the younger’s mouth when he got that face. It was either something that made no sense, or something Hongbin didn’t want to hear.

“No, Sanghyuk. Please enlighten me.”

“Well, _ your highness _ ,” he paused. “I believe you saw a siren.”

Hongbin bolted upright, feeling the hair on the back of his neck rise.

“Stop this nonsense. Sirens aren’t real.”

“Then where did that music come from? You saw the creature, yet you refuse to believe. People believe in God with a lot less!” the younger boy argued, brows knitted in a deep frown.

“Keep it down, will you?” Hongbin whispered. It wouldn’t look good for the prince if his right hand man was hanged for blasphemy. And perhaps Hongbin would miss him.

“You should go back to the shore. He might come back to get you, since he didn’t succeed the first time.”

“Thanks, that’s very promising.”

..

He still went. Against his better judgment, he went back to the shore where he would wait for a siren, a creature,  _ mythical _ creature, known to feed on human flesh by luring them into the sea using this enchanting music that would hypnotize the humans. Mostly men.

Sneaking out of the castle wasn’t even challenging at this point; he had been doing it since he was 12 and his father stopped trying to stop him years ago. He was a grown man, strong and trained in several types of martial arts. In training to be captain of the king’s army, he didn’t need a babysitter. If a siren was going to kill him, according to the legends, even the army couldn’t stop it.

He sat on a giant rock under the full moon, waiting, eyes glued to the ocean, following every movement and every wave and every bubble on the water. He sat on the cold rock for hours, humming the odd tune from memory. He wasn’t sure if that was going to do any good.

Nothing happened the first night, or the second, or the third, or even the 20th. Hongbin didn’t even know why he kept coming back. Sanghyuk was clearly wrong and sirens weren’t real, and if they were, they had no interest in him. But there was something about the sea at night, the way it was quiet but not really, or the way the moonlight reflected on the surface of the water and how it seemed like the ocean never ends. The stars and the fireflies’s flickering light upon the shore also called him. Hongbin had fallen in love with the beauty and the peace of the ocean.

The prince always loved the ocean. Sure, he loved to sail and see the world, discover new places, swin and see colorful fishes and even catch some, but nights on the ocean was something he had never appreciated enough and now that he had had a taste, it seemed like he couldn’t get enough.

On the 21st night, Hongbin didn’t even remember why he started coming to the shore. His days were getting back to the palace by 5 in the morning and getting 3, maybe 4 hours of sleep before he had to attend to his duties and training. He would fight through the day, under the harsh sunlight, among the crowd and the loud chatter of the people and the clattering of swords just to run back to the shore, to take off his boots and feel the soft, wet sand under his feet as the chilly water washed all his stress away.

He closed his eyes, feeling his feet sinking deeper into the sand as cold water reached his ankles. That was when he heard it: the mysterious tune that seemed like it was coming from all around. It was low, barely audible. No, Hongbin was just imagining it, his mind doing dirty tricks on him. They say the ocean can make a man lose his mind as easy as waves hitting the shore.

The prince opened his eyes, whirling around, trying to see beyond the shadows and the rocks. The water moved; he saw with the corner of his eye. He squinted his eyes, trying to see past the giant rock a few feet away in the water. Something was glowing under the clear water, like colorful broken glass, the colors changing from jade to gold to pink as the water moved.

Hongbin took a step further into the sea, the water reaching his shins, then another, then another, until he was waist down into the water. The hair on his arms stood up as he shivered at the cold, eyes still on the glowing colors under the water. Something emerged from the water - or someone - hiding behind the giant rock.

“It was you…” Hongbin said before he could stop himself, the images of that day rushing back.

He didn’t remember much about their first encounter, due to being dehydrated and half concious, but now that the boy was in front him, he was remembering. It was more of a man than a boy, soft silky hair that seemed dark blue under the moonlight, spotless pale skin and a face with the most delicate and beautiful features Hongbin had ever seen on any human being. He had sharp feline eyes and small rosy lips, high cheeks and a small chin; the man was otherworldly beautiful.

The mysterious, beautiful man giggled. The way he giggled, just like the other time, had the corner of his eyes crinkling as he hid behind his palms.

“You saved me from dying in the middle of the ocean.” Hongbin meant it to be a question but it came out more like a statement. The man nodded. 

“Why?” he asked after pondering for a while. The man shrugged, not looking at Hongbin as if he wasn’t sure himself.

“You understand me, correct?” the prince asked just to be sure.

“Yes.” The man finally spoke. Hongbin felt like all the air was sucked out of his lungs at once. The man had the softest, most gentle voice.

“You can speak…”

“Yes,” the man replied shyly, playing with his hair so he wouldn’t have to look the prince in the eyes.

“What is your name?”

“Taekwoon.”

..

“Where on earth were you all night?” his friend asked with worry as soon as Hongbin set foot in his room in the morning. Sanghyuk looked distressed and anxious.

“Everywhere! Places you can’t imagine Sanghyuk.” The prince gasped, eyes sparking the way they had never sparked before and his voice livelier than his friend had ever heard. He twirled around the room, muddy boots leaving a dirty trail behind him which he seemed completely uncaring about.

“What’s happened to you? Are you drunk?” Sanghyuk grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him.

“No, Sanghyuk, I’m not. I need to clean up before my morning training begins.” He shook his hands off himself, leaving for the bathroom before Sanghyuk could interrogate him further.

Hongbin’s eyes closed as he sank deeper into the tub, remembering the previous night, when Taekwoon swam away from the rock and Hongbin saw his long sculpted torso glistening under the pale moonlight. His arms were long and strong with small fins attached to their sides. He jumped on the rock in one swift motion; Hognbin’s eyes barely caught the movement, and he sat up on the rock, gorgeous and graceful, his fin a rainbow of colors as it moved, jade, turquoise and gold, the scales sparkling pink in some angles, making it impossible for any sighted man to look away.

“Are you… Are you going to eat me? _ ” _ Hongbin had asked in a shaky voice, still walking further into the peaceful ocean until the water reached his neck. The merman had shook his head, giggling.

“We only eat the greens. Algaes mostly.” He shrugged.

“Then… the stories… the melody that lures men into the ocean, what about that?”

“The ‘melody’ is our way of communicating with other sea creatures, but the humans are drawn to it as it seems. I hadn’t seen it myself until that day on the shore where we met.

“It is the reason we keep away from the shore. We cannot help that our voices lure men in but your people blamed us and started hunting us. That was years and years ago, during my great-great-grandfather’s ruling.”

It seemed like Hongbin only registered the last part of the explanation. “You are a prince?”

“...Maybe,” he said hesitatingly, looking up at the stars.

“Well, I am a prince too.”

The conversation didn’t die until it was morning and the human prince had to leave. Taekwoon had shown him his cave, where he kept the little treasures he found on the bottom of the ocean, from the sunken ships and boats. It was like a small museum, lit by hundreds of glow worms on the ceiling. The only way into the cave was underwater and Taekwoon held his hand as they swam towards the entrance. Hognbin was so mesmerised but the way the merman’s tail moved he almost forgot he had to swim.

They spent all night laying on the warm rock inside the cave, telling each other about their own worlds. As Taekwoon told him about the life in the ocean and beauties of the sea, Hongbin couldn’t shake the feeling that he belonged there with the merman. They had only known each other for mere hours, but the human felt like he had known the merman all his life.

..

7 weeks passed. Hongbin would spend all night with the merman, sometimes exploring the ocean together, Taekwoon showing him things that he could never imagine in his wildest dreams, but of course, Hongbin’s human body had limits that the merman’s didn’t. The salty water burned his eyes and skin after some time, his muscles aching and his lungs burning but Hongbin couldn’t have enough of the ocean. He wanted to see further. Feel more. Sink deeper.

He started to wonder if this was what happened to the other men, if that was how the legends started: men fell in love with the sea, and then the sea creatures. Maybe they all wanted what he wanted. Maybe they had their heart stolen by a mermaid and tried to chase their love to the bottom of the ocean.

The days got harder and harder to bear for the prince as time went by; the food didn’t taste the same, his skin felt dry and rough and itchy. Sometimes it felt like there were thorns trying to break out from under his skin. He could barely walk under the sun and after a while he could barely walk at all and the only time he felt alive was when he was at the sea with Taekwoon. His eyes could see clearer in the water than in land, his skin stopped feeling like it was tearing up and he didn’t feel like they had sandpaper between them.

“I think I’m sick.” Hongbin sighed, lying side by side with Taekwoon on a rock inside the limestone cave where Taekwoon kept his little treasures. “But the healer doesn't know what it is.”

“You don’t seem sick.” Taekwoon lifted his head looking at the younger skeptically.

“I know. It all stops when I reach the ocean.” He heaved a sigh.

Taekwoon’s eyes went wide in realization before he looked away, biting his nails, thinking hard.

“What is it?”

..

_ My dear friend, _

_ I was never good at writing letters, never knowing where to begin. So I start with saying goodbye. I am regretful that I must do it like this but I think it is better. As you had noticed as of recently I had fallen sick. But my friend, I finally know what is wrong and I am going to be okay, but sadly I must leave you and my family and the city behind. _

_ Please tell my mother not to worry and father not to search for me. I will be happy and healthy, that is a promise. And you, my old friend, my brother from another mother, thank you for sticking by me all my life. I know I wasn’t always easy to be around. I hope that you find the place you truly belong to in the world, just as I did, for there is no joy higher than finding a place and a person to call home. _

_ With love, _

_ Hongbin _

..

It felt like waking up from the best and deepest slumber of his life as he blinked his eyes open. He was in an unfamiliar place but felt oddly at peace, like he knew he was safe. Everything around him looked foreign. There were lights and colors he had never seen before. Taekwoon appeared in front of him out of nowhere, hovering above him as if…

They were underwater.

Hongbin was breathing. Underwater. And he could see clearly. 

Taekwoon held his face in his hands, a fond smile on his face and eyes filled with something like relief. He kissed Hongbin, chaste and short before he grabbed him by the shoulder, helping him sit up. That was when Hongbin felt different from waist down, so he looked down.

The former human prince saw his new fin for the first time. Where the fin started around the middle of his hips, it was the most beautiful and vibrant royal blue that faded into a rich burgundy in the middle.

“You’re beautiful,” Taekwoon said, not with words but with a melody and Hongbin understood him.

“No more than you.” He felt the words echo through his chest, sending a wave of sound in the water. 

Taekwoon blushed, biting his lips. “I love you,” he said, placing his left palm over Hongbin’s chest where his heart would be.

Hongbin mirrored him. “And I you.”

**Author's Note:**

> This took almost a whole month huh....  
> Even I don't know how I feel about it yet, so please tell me what you thought? Kudos and comments are always loved and appreciated if you deemed me worthy UwU  
> Thank you Rachel, as always, for betaing this last minute 😌🌹  
> You know where to find me:  
> [Tumblr](https://babieken.tumblr.com)  
> 


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